They have been seen on Morning Joe and College Game Day, Univision and Canal Plus, Squawk Box and Conan. Everywhere you turn this week it seems MLS is turning up. Rightfully so, with MLS Cup this weekend at the Home Depot Center in LA, the sport wraps up another successful year of growth across North America. From highly successful sponsored friendlies all summer to grassroots growth to digital and business innovation, Major League Soccer is stronger as a brand today than it ever has been and indications are, even with some growing pains, the league is moving ahead in grand style.
The Championship Week has had a number of things play in their favor. A huge audience tuned in for AMERICAN college football in LA last Saturday for Notre Dame and USC, and got to hear Landon Donovan talk sports on ESPN College Game Day. The league carefully chose the right window to push the news about New York getting the next expansion franchise, setting off a wave of news in an important market where the season for the Red Bulls was long done. The league got to celebrate the end of David Beckham’s landmark time with the LA Galaxy (who face the Houston Dynamo in the final) with news he may be involved in a club ownership, which brought even more global attention to the week. Factor in Oscar DelaHoya in his ownership role in Houston, a slew of community events around Los Angeles, Google chats with players, an NHL Lockout, not much NASCAR action save for awards this week, relative quiet in the NFL and the early season NBA, and save for some additional college football conference madness, MLS found a relatively clear week, nestled between Thanksgiving and the Winter Baseball Meetings, to call home.
The result was a week with good buzz, a series of awards which gave brands sponsoring them their due, and just enough hype to get some casual fans engaged. A nice window with two solid markets to play the culmination of the season.
Is it perfect? The MLS season goes on for a very long time and still irks the purist since it does not mirror the European football season. The match is in LA, which makes the weather better than New England or New York, which had traditionally frigid temperatures this week. So there is no perfect solution. However for a league on the come, many things broke the right way for MLS this season and this week, and they have a rightful stage to tout their game, their fans and their brand this weekend.
